Our first featured rugby action on Saturday comes from the Hanazono Stadium in Higashiosaka where Eddie Jones and Japan take on Australia.
Japan vs Australia, Saturday 8th August, Higashiosaka, KO 12:00 (South African time)
Referee: Eoghan Cross (Ireland)
Assistant referees: Paul Williams (New Zealand), Morgan White (Hong Kong China)
TMO: Richard Kelly (New Zealand)
Weather Forecast - Higashiosaka
Japan:
Japan opened their inaugural Nations Championship campaign in in Tokyo where they got the better of Italy 27–10. In Round 2 they travelled to Newcastle, Australia for a match up with Ireland which they lost 36-20. Round 3 saw Japan return home to face France in Tokyo and they went down 42–15 victory. With four log points Japan are fifth in the Southern Hemisphere standings.
This is the first of a double header with the Wallabies as the teams will meet again in Townsville next week.
Australia:
After the first 3 rounds of Nations Championship matches the Wallabies are in third place on the Southern log with 8 points, already 7 shy of South Africa and New Zealand.
Australia were edged out 33–31 by Ireland in Sydney in the opening Nations Championship match where they earned two bonus points whilst in Round 2 they went down 42-26 to France, salvaging a bonus point with a late try. The Wallabies coughed up what looked like match winning leads in both those matches but Round 3 saw them thrash Italy 57-10 in what was Joe Schmidt’s final game in charge. Les Kiss is the new head coach.
Recent Head to Head
2025 INT Tokyo Japan 15-19 Australia
2021 INT Oita Japan 23-32 Australia
Team News
Japan: 15-Takuro Matsunaga, 14-Kazuma Ueda, 13-Dylan Riley, 12-Samisoni Tua, 11-Taira Main, 10-Ryunosuke Ito, 9-Naoto Saito, 8-Faulua Makisi, 7-Kanji Shimokawa, 6-Ben Gunter, 5-Warner Dearns (captain), 4-Jack Cornelson, 3-Shuhei Takeuchi, 2-Hayate Era, 1-Takato Okabe
Replacements: 16-Mamoru Harada, 17-Sojiro Otsuka, 18-Keijiro Tamefusa, 19-Harry Hockings, 20-Michael Leitch, 21-Tiennan Costley, 22-Shunsuke Uenobo, 23-Yoshitaka Yazaki
Australia: 15 Tom Wright, 14 Max Jorgensen, 13 Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii, 12 Hunter Paisami, 11 Harry Potter, 10 Declan Meredith, 9 Ryan Lonergan, 8 Harry Wilson (captain), 7 Fraser McReight, 6 Rob Valetini, 5 Miles Amatosero, 4 Josh Canham, 3 Allan Alaalatoa, 2 Josh Nasser, 1 Aidan Ross.
Replacements: 16 Billy Pollard, 17 Angus Bell, 18 Taniela Tupou, 19 Jeremy Williams, 20 Charlie Cale, 21 Tate McDermott, 22 Ben Donaldson, 23 Isaac Henry
The Betting
Updated 07 Aug 16h20
Japan +16.5 points
Australia -14.5 points
Note, odds quoted are available at the time of writing but are subject to change.
Bet: Japan v Australia
Posted 07 August
Bet: 2 units (1–5) – Japan +16.5 at 10/11 with World Sports Betting.
This is not a game I have a particularly strong view on, but Japan have been showing some improved form, and I imagine Australia feel like they have bigger fish to fry in the weeks to come.
The points line here is 62.5, and were it not for the fact that playing conditions in Japan are often tough with the humidity, I would have been on the overs.
I'm going to stick with the handicap play, though, and back Japan +16.5 to keep this one respectable.
More rugby bets from Brent can be found in the Currie Cup Blog whilst tips from other members of our community are posted on the weekly rugby thread on our brand new discussion forum. If you haven't done so already, register a forum account here.
Note, odds quoted are available at the time of writing but are subject to change.